a dedicated group of formerly homeless persons advocating for those still out, joined by community partners who care- outreach to those who are experiencing homelessness on their turf and their terms, trust building-material needs, food clothing, tents, sleeping bags
emotional support, been there done that compassion
public education through speaker panels,an annual sleepout on Statehouse and homeless memorial day activities;the fundamental truth is that we are our brothers' keepers

Manchester NH

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why are we "NH Under The Bridge"?

NH Under The Bridge is an organization founded on the principle that in order to end homelessness, people who are homeless must become an organized, effective voice for systemic change.

Our position is that if you lose your housing and chose to live in public spaces rather than go to shelter the police should not abuse your constitutional and human rights! We fight to end selective enforcement of Quality of Life regulations (we ask "Whose Quality of Life" is improved by moving homeless people from public spaces?)

It's not a homeless crisis - it's a housing crisis! The city's best hope for reducing and preventing homelessness is a commitment to addressing the skyrocketing rents and general housing shortage that plagues NH and drives people by the thousands into homelessness. Yet at the same time as the homeless population continues to escalate, landlords and the city continue to keep buildings empty and gentrify our neighborhoods.

We are a citywide organization and our constituency includes homeless people living in shelters as well as those living on the streets and in other public places. We serve a broad population of people because homelessness cuts across all boundaries: race, ethnicity, culture, gender, family composition, age, sexual orientation, language, etc., but what all homeless people have in common as a community is extreme poverty and social stigmatization.

There are currently over 5000 people in the NH shelter system, In addition the 14.000 people who came forward to ask for help but found no room at the shelters. These numbers do not include street-dwelling homeless people, or the hundreds of families waiting for placement in a shelter, or the doubled-up households throughout the state that go uncounted.

Our outreach targets individuals from within the shelter system, as well as those who are unable/unwilling to live within it. We meet them on their turf and their terms.

NH Under The Bridge was founded on the principle that homeless people have civil and human rights regardless of our race, creed, color or economic status. NH Under The Bridge Was founded by homeless and formerly homeless people. We refuse to accept being neglected and we demand that our voices and experience are heard at all levels of decision-making that impact us.We oppose the quality of life laws that criminalize homeless people in any form by the city, state and national governments. We work to change these laws and policies as well as to challenge the root causes of homelessness. Our strategies include grass roots organizing, direct action, and educating homeless people about their rights, public education, changing media stereotypes, and building relationships with allies.

"Under the bridge isn't just a place, It's a way of life some have to face cold and alone outside the fortunate can’t live life, cause they can't afford it. Under the bridge isn't a place, it's a feeling you get when you are all alone, no rescue in sight and The only thing on your mind is where you'll sleep tonight"-Jamie Kupchun 1999

about the project

Under The Bridge is self supporting through our own contributions and it survives on God's Providence, through your generosity. We are not a non-profit and do not give tax receipts. Nothing comes in that does not go out directly to the people in need. We dont need money, we need goods and food to distribute.

We can’t measure smiles; how many weeks it takes for someone to finally trust us and tell us their name.Some get financially better off; they become employed, sober, or qualify for other programs.Some get off the street,Some don’t. Some die.We are not in charge of the final outcome but we are able to help along the way with a little compassion and a lot of understanding. Anyone can do what we do.It starts with a smile and a greeting.

We have found that one of the most important things you can offer is your time and friendship. We see the same people every day and make sure we know their name and begin to find out their story. That way we can find out what they need and want instead of having to guess what they could use. Each person is an individual, one may need new socks and someone else would need a toothbrush.Your friendship is invaluable. Your experience, strength and hope is all you can offer at times, it is essential.

As homelessness continues to increase, so does the outrage of death on our streets. Having a permanent roof over one’s head, an adequate income and health care would greatly reduce the number who die homeless.Having treatment programs with available drop-in beds would further facilitate the addict into recovery from the street, as is is not normal for a street person to be able to call for a bed daily, as is required now.

I Stand at the Door

By Sam Shoemaker (from the Oxford Group)

I stand by the door.I neither go to far in, nor stay to far out.The door is the most important door in the world -It is the door through which men walk when they find God.There is no use my going way inside and staying there,When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,Crave to know where the door is.And all that so many ever findIs only the wall where the door ought to be.They creep along the wall like blind men,With outstretched, groping hands,Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,Yet they never find it.So I stand by the door.

The most tremendous thing in the worldIs for men to find that door - the door to God.The most important thing that any man can doIs to take hold of one of those blind, groping handsAnd put it on the latch - the latch that only clicksAnd opens to the man's own touch.

Men die outside the door, as starving beggars dieOn cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.Die for want of what is within their grasp.They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.

Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,And open it, and walk in, and find Him.So I stand by the door.

Go in great saints; go all the way in -Go way down into the cavernous cellars,And way up into the spacious attics.It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.Go into the deepest of hidden casements,Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.Some must inhabit those inner roomsAnd know the depths and heights of God,And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.Sometimes I take a deeper look in.Sometimes venture in a little farther,But my place seems closer to the opening.So I stand by the door.

There is another reason why I stand there.Some people get part way in and become afraidLest God and the zeal of His house devour them;For God is so very great and asks all of us.And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobiaAnd want to get out. 'Let me out!' they cry.And the people way inside only terrify them more.Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.For the old life, they have seen too much:One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.Somebody must be watching for the frightenedWho seek to sneak out just where they came in,To tell them how much better it is inside.The people too far in do not see how near these areTo leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.Somebody must watch for those who have entered the doorBut would like to run away. So for them too,I stand by the door.

I admire the people who go way in.But I wish they would not forget how it wasBefore they got in. Then they would be able to helpThe people who have not yet even found the door.Or the people who want to run away again from God.You can go in too deeply and stay in too longAnd forget the people outside the door.As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,But not so far from men as not to hear them,And remember they are there too.

Where? Outside the door -Thousands of them. Millions of them.But - more important for me -One of them, two of them, ten of them.Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.So I shall stand by the door and waitFor those who seek it.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Photo by Will Stewart of Fortressmanchester.comwith stroy "They call her "Crazy" Karen"

Subject: Letter to editorTo: news@manchexpress.com

Thank you Manchester Express and Brian Early for your story on Karen Carter. You certainly captured the Karen that most of us know, but there is more to her story than, “Crazy Karen”

I have know Karen Carter for many years and at our monthly counsel meeting in Laconia on Wednesday I was asked by Grandfather Donald Newell our former Chief of to share more information about our friend Karen Carter.

Before Manchester knew Karen directing traffic downtown she was a member of the Passamaquoddy Joint-Tribal Counsel ( Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes people) and the NH Native American Inter-Tribal Counsel.

While she was activist in the Manchester community she was also active in Native Rights in many ways.

In the late 70’s early 80s The Passamaquoddy tribe sued Maine in Federal Court over land rights regarding Indian Island and the small area they were forced to live in while large paper mill corporations harvested on Maine’s Indian Lands. They stated the Dept of interior failed to fulfill national guardianship duties owed to Maine’s tribes and after a long battle a Joint Memorandum between Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Negotiating committee along with the White House work Group was signed in 1978.

The battle continued until President Carter made appearance in Maine and in 1980 President Carter signed the Maine Indian Settlement Act giving $81.5 million to the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Tribes to purchase 300,000 acres of

land. Also gave tribes $27 million trust fund for economic development.

In 1986 Karen and Harold Pins produced a film “Our Lives in Our Hands” which

examines the traditional Native American craft of split ash basketmaking as a means of economic and cultural survival for Aroostook Micmac Indians of northern Maine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189whl0Wd7o

She also served on the Board of now defucnt Sargent Museum of Archeology, which was incorporated 1994 and held Penacook artifacts from the Smyth Site and Eddy Road in Manchester. The Smyth site was an important fishing station; it was a village site for the Penacook’s and excavation of the site was of urgency to due to impending bridge construction in the mid-eighties.

While on the streets in Manchester she would sometimes say to passersby, “get off my land” or “I can’t be homeless on my own land” and knowing her background, one can understand why she laid claim to her small area in the valley of the Merrimack River.

Our neighbors who are homeless, were not born in our streets, they have multifaucited lives with various backgrounds and if we don’t take the time to know them, we miss out on understanding how we are all connected.

Cindy Carlson NH Native American Inter-Tribal Counsel

this was the article theManchester Express had already printed

ManchesterExpressRIP Queen City's 'unofficial mayor'

by Brian Early

Highly visible Karen Carter had surprisingly big impact

"You think you own Manchester, huh? You don't. I do. Do you know who I am? I invented Dental Dams."

That was Samatha Appleton's first first conversation with Karen, the unoffical Mayor of Manchester. Appleton the director of public relations at Intown Manchester, became good friends with her. Karen would stop by and talk about Manchester and seemingly had wild stories.

"She had a way of making you almost believe them", Appleton said.

Karen didn't trust me until she knew I was friends with Appleton. Once she trusted me, she no longer yelled at me. If she saw me driving towards her, she'd stop and say something to make me laugh.

Appleton called me in tears two weeks ago. Karen Angela Carter would no longer stop by her office. She would no longer direct traffic. She would no longer stand and speak passionately about mental illness at the city's goverment meetings. She died May 13 at 3pm, she lost her battle with cancer.

In later years, she was known by many as Crazy Karen. That's what I first though of her before I knew her. But she was a caring person who fought fot the rights of others.

" She would go and stand before the Mayor and the alderman and stick up for people who didn't have a voice," remembers Tracy Deggs, a Manchester community activist. "She didn't treat the guy in the suit or the homeless guy any different. Everyone is a human being.

Sometimes she was homeless, sometimes not. Often she struggled to survive. But that wouldn't stop her from trying to donate her limited means to others. Fred Robinson of New Horizonsremembers her trying to donate a dollar to one of their fundraisers.

" you need that for yourself," He told her. "She tried to donate whatever she had."

Sean Thomas, advisor to Mayor Frank Guinta, recalls Karen as active in city life.

" She was one of the smartest people I know. She could tell you everything going on in the city," he said. " Karen knew everyone and could remember their names. Politicians wiould die for that skill."

Last year she stopped Thomas. She was hungry and asked Thomas to buy her a hot dog from a street vendor. The vendor overheard the conversation.

"Karen I will take care of you, " the vendor told her. He gave her two hot dogs and a soda. "People looked out for her."

It is difficult to know fact from fiction in Karen's life. All the infromation is hearsay, but collaborated with poelpe who knew her. Karen was born 60 years ago in Lawerence, Mass. She was born into a large family, some of whom are in Maine and California. She worked as the director of admissions at Lawerence General Hospital. She moved to New Hampshire. She worked in Concrod managing a pizza place and worked as a receptionist at a dentists office.

She served on the board of the now disbanded Sargent Museum. She wopuld frequent the Franco-American Center on Concord Street to keep up with her French.

In Manchester, she worked as an advocate for the homeless and people with mental illness. And she looked out for others. She was know to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with her limited means and distribute them to homeless folks in Manchester.

I wish I had known her sooner. But at least I was able to dance with her to the music of Del Sol during the summer park music series last year.

My favorite story is when I sat with Karen and Appleton on the sidewalk of Elm street, two professional women were walking side by side and talking.

outreach crew

the current UTB crew

Ben, newly sober, newly housed and highly spiritual, he believes that all people are children of God and deserving of shelter, safety, security, medical and food.It is amazing to watch him interact with his peers and watch him grow in the process.

Paul, has been clean and sober almost a decade. He states that he is alcoholic and heroin addict. While he was never homeless in his life, he has had his share of challenges. He says he is looking for his sense of prupose.He once owned an apartment building, though he lost it as a result of his addictions. He now lives in a small over-priced apartment and works daily to maintain his housing and his serenity.When he first went out to the homeless camps he remarked " its like when I was a kid and I needed to isolate from my crazy family, the difference is when I got sick of being out there, I went back home"

2008

Terry, has been clean and sober for over two years and believes that by working at a grassroots level, great things will and do happen. He feels a connection to our homeless brothers and sisters and hopes to be able to make a difference in their lives and grow even more spiritually.

Samatha is a college student from UNH she joined us in spring 2008 because she needed 15 hours of community service, she is long done her hours. She stated that working with the people is like caring for her granparents and and other relatives, and she was wholehearted saddened when a man she had developed a friendly relationship died that summer.she says, ignorance was never really bliss, but now there is no going back.We love her youthful enthusiasim.

Joe started out in the street right where he is serving now. He has a year and more of sobriety. He said he could easily romantize that it was like on the street, hot days and hard times in apartment, could make him think of the coolness by the river, but by attending to peers he not only keeps himself sober but he is a role model for others who knew him before.

Others come and join us on a drop by basis

and then there's me learning that consistency is essential to building trust.

death on the street

Our friend Joe was a diabetic Christian man who lived outside for the past 10 years. He found that he wasnt comfortable at the shelter because people used profanity. When I first met him he told me if I wanted to know who he was I would have to read the book of Job from the bible. He read the New Testament everyday and at Homeless Memorial Day vigils he sang "Amazing Grace"like an angel.

I wish that his story ended the way of Job when God returned him to renewal and prosperity. "And Job died being old and full of days" I do not know the ways of God, perhaps Joe lived to teach us compassion.

Joe was found in his camp, passed away on May 24th, 2008.This picture was taken the year he went with us to "Gimme Shelter" a sleepout on the NH Statehouse.

The figures behind him are a visual representation of the persons who had already passed away in NH while homeless.

'Word was he died on the street'Homeless to honor their friend 'Razor'By SHIRA SCHOENBERG Monitor staffhereOctober 21, 2008Monitor file Raymond “Razor” Luoma, who was homeless, died last week. He was well-known to other homeless people in Concord.

The homeless community will remember one of their own, Raymond "Razor" Luoma, at an event Friday night.Luoma, 50, died last week. "The word was he died on the street," said the Rev. David Keller, pastor of First Congregational Church in Concord, which houses a winter shelter where Luoma had stayed.The Monitor profiled Luoma last year. He had been homeless for most of his life. Keller said Luoma was a survivor of Eastern equine encephalitis and had been interviewed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "He wore that like a badge," Keller said. "He thought he was some kind of stuff for having CDC researchers talk to him."He is survived by two daughters, a brother and a sister. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. today at Maple Grove Cemetery in Concord.The American Friends Service Committee will include a memorial to Razor in its annual program Give Me Shelter, which will be held Friday night. The program will include a group of mostly high school and college students sleeping outside to dramatize the plight of the state's homeless population, said Arnie Alpert, the state's program coordinator for the AFSC. The group will set up about 4 p.m. in front of the State House, then will go to the Friendly Kitchen for dinner and return to the State House Plaza for a discussion that will include people

Jimmy

Photo By Preston Heller

Structural Causes of Homelessness

Structural Causes of Homelessness

Betty Reid MandellALTHOUGH THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN some homeless people, their numbers increased dramatically during the Reagan Administration. The federal government cut back on building houses and subsidizing housing for low-income people as well as social assistance programs. Urban renewal and gentrification forced people out of low-rent housing, and wages declined with deindustrialization and outsourcing. Cities used land use policies to help corporations and real estate interests squeeze out the poor.

Even with low wages, many poor people could afford housing if they had access to government-subsidized public housing. However, the federal government has been cutting back on building housing and providing subsidies for housing since the early 1980s. There is a 5-year waiting list for Section 8 vouchers even in special circumstances such as disability or veterans, and no more are being given out. The federal government chose to subsidize private housing for poor people through Section 8 vouchers rather than build housing because it did not want to interfere with private real estate interests. Real estate interests have decimated rent control in most cities, as rents continue to rise beyond the ability of low-income people, and even middle-income people, to pay them.

Many homeless individuals will not go to a homeless shelter because they are crowded and dangerous. If there is no place to store belongings, they often are stolen. Some of the residents have emotional problems which are exacerbated, or caused by, their homelessness. To avoid these dangerous conditions, some people sleep in the streets, in parks, in their cars, RVs, or in train or bus stations. Some live in tents in the woods or build temporary shelters in out-of-the-way spaces in the city, which are often torn down by the city. Some homeless people prefer the freedom and privacy they have in their own encampments to rigidly controlled shelters.

Shelter programs are shaped by prevailing views of the poor, who are considered to be generally inadequate and incompetent and in need of reform.

In "A Roof Over my Head," Jean Calterone Williams expresses this well:"By making many aspects of their programs mandatory . . . shelters give the impression that homeless people will not take the initiative on their own to look for work or housing, enroll their children in school, or keep their living spaces clean. They must be forced to do so. By mandating budgeting classes, shelters suggest that people become homeless in part because they are irresponsible with their money. It is in a sense a symbiotic relationship: shelter programs influence the ways housed people think about homelessness, the views of the housed public -- whether ordinary citizens or policymakers -- affect the formation of shelter programs and how such programs treat homeless people."

I AM BEMUSED by announcements that come over the radio from time to time by foundations or institutes saying they are studying the causes of homelessness and seeking cures.

In fact, the causes are quite simple and have been studied quite enough. Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services.

It is true that many of the homeless are alcoholics or drug addicts, but they need a home while they are coping with their problem, and they need treatment programs, and both are in short supply.

It is also true that many of the homeless have emotional problems. Who wouldn't have emotional problems if they were homeless? But they need a home while they are coping with their problems and they need support services. Both are in short supply.

A disproportionate number of foster children who have "aged out" of the foster care system are homeless.

A disproportionate number of veterans are homeless. It is the fault of the government that they are in this condition, but the government has deserted them.

A large percentage of homeless women have been abused. While they may need a temporary refuge to escape the abuser and counseling to help them heal, they also need permanent housing, childcare, a job that pays a living wage, and social supports.

The focus on individual problems shifts attention away from structural problems and obscures the real causes of homelessness. It leads to stereotyping of homeless people as deviant and degenerate, drunk or drugged, or crazy. When these stereotypes are embedded in people's minds, they view every beggar as a scammer.

Stereotyping leads to criminalizing the homeless, allowing cities to sweep them from the streets. It gives implicit permission to delinquent thugs to beat them up.

Stereotyping leads to ever-changing policies geared to fixing different target sub-populations of homeless people. There are "periodic calls for local homeless plans based upon the newest policy flavor (and) temporary and local responses to homelessness that fail to address its systemic causes."

"New words on the horizon, Shelter plus Care. Transitional Housing, Permanent supportive housing, work force housing. These words devalue people though they may get grant monies for them. They imply that the people need to be fixed and that the latter workforce housing, is the better deal for a community." Cindy Carlson

The public stereotypes become internalized by the homeless, causing them to try to distance themselves from the "undeserving Other," however they visualize the "Other."

I met many people in the welfare office who told me that they were "not like those others" who are lazy and don't want to work. I told one woman that what might look like laziness is actually depression, and she admitted that she was depressed.

Homeless men resist being categorized as "homeless" because that conjures up the image of a drunken bum.

Homeless women resist being categorized as "homeless" because that conjures up the image of a crazy disheveled "bag lady."

Battered women resist being described as "battered," preferring to see themselves as "survivors."

There is a hierarchy of deserving vs. undeserving in the public's mind. Battered women are seen as deserving because they are victims. Parents and children are more deserving than single men because children are innocent victims.

Homeless men are the least deserving, because they should be working. These images of the homeless help to shape the way shelters treat their residents and the way the residents view themselves.

Even though many women who have been victims of domestic violence are not in battered women's shelters, the women in battered women's shelters often see themselves as superior to homeless women in family shelters.

I end with this

In the book Poor peoples movements Piven and Cloward conclude:One can never predict with certainty when the "heavings and rumblings of the social foundations" will force up large-scale defiance, although changes of great magnitude were at work. Who, after all, could have predicted the extraordinary mobilization of black people beginning in 1955? Nor can one calculate with certainty the responses of elites to mass disruption. There are no blueprints to guide movements of the poor. But if organizers and leaders want to help those movements emerge, they must always proceed as if protest were possible. They may fail. The time may not the right. But then, they may sometimes succeed.

The Criminalization of the Homeless-Homes Not Jails

The civil rights of people experiencing homelessness are continually violated, whether it be by endangering their right to vote, by hate crimes committed against them, by denying children in homeless situations an equal right to education, and even by unjust laws making it illegal to be homeless. NCH is concerned about this illegal disenfranchisement of people experiencing homelessness, and the Civil Rights Project exists to protect the civil rights of people in homeless situations.

July 6, 2004 Union Leader NewspaperEx-homeless Mom named to state post

A local advocate for the homeless has been selected to serve as the state field coordintor for the National Coalition for the Homeless Civil Rights Organizing Project...The organizing Project seeks to stop policies and practices that discriminate against the homeless."And so the work continues.

_____________________________Manchester's City Ordinances Arbitrarily Used against Person’s Experiencing Homelessness

§ 130.01 PUBLIC LOUNGING OR SLEEPING.§ 130.02 OBSTRUCTING PASSAGEWAYS.§ 130.24 PUBLIC DRINKING.(B) Exemption: This section shall not apply to the area of a sidewalk encumbered by resturants§ 91.68 DEPOSIT OF LITTER.§ 91.70 LITTER ON VACANT PROPERTY.§ 91.73 LITTERING IN PARKS.

TITLE III TOWNS, CITIES, VILLAGE DISTRICTS, AND UNINCORPORATED PLACESCHAPTER 47 POWERS OF CITY COUNCILS Bylaws and Ordinances Section 47:1747:17 Bylaws and Ordinances. – The city councils shall have power to make all such salutary and needful bylaws as towns and the police officers of towns and engineers or firewards by law have power to make and to annex penalties, not exceeding $1,000, for the breach thereof; and may make, establish, publish, alter, modify, amend and repeal ordinances, rules, regulations, and bylaws for the following purposes: I. IN GENERAL. To carry into effect all the powers by law vested in the city….XIII. VAGRANTS, OBSCENE CONDUCT. To restrain and punish vagrants, mendicants, street beggars, strolling musicians, and common prostitutes, and all kinds of immoral and obscene conduct, and to regulate the times and places of bathing and swimming in the canals, rivers and other waters of the city, and the clothing to be worn by bathers and swimmers…

Everyday people experienceing homelessness are ticketed for doing things outside that they would not have to do if they lived in their own homes.

_________________________________

Lawmaker wants to outlaw public peeingPublished: October 01, 2007By The Associated PressCONCORD – A New Hampshire lawmaker says peeing in public exposes a flaw in the law.Strange as it sounds, Democratic Rep. Stephen Shurtleff says making public urination a separate crime could really help people out.Currently, there is no state law specifically addressing public urination; it's prosecuted under a patchwork of local and state laws, indecent exposure among them.Shurtleff says because indecent exposure is a sex offense, multiple convictions could land habitual public urinators on a sex offender registry, a penalty he feels is too severe for the crime."I think some of the stigma attached to that is greater than the offense," he said. "It's public urination, and they should be charged with it."As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Shurtleff, of Concord, is working to rewrite New Hampshire's sex offender laws to comply with a new federal law. Under federal law, those convicted of indecent exposure twice in three years would be forced to register as sex offenders.Shurtleff said he will push for a law making public urination a misdemeanor.

NH has acute shortage of housing stock 2009

afsc.orgNH has an acute shortage of housing stock, especially of housing (both for home ownership and for rental) affordable to households earning less than area median income. In the past decade we have built fewer than 900 new multifamily units, and some of those have been luxury apartments.Rents in the southern half of the state have increased as much as 37% over the last 5 years. The state median rent is $978/month, and over $1000 per month in Manchester, Nashua and Portsmouth.Based on projections from the NH Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau, 65% of new jobs will pay less than the state level "housing wage" of $18.81, the amount needed to afford a typical apartment.6553 people were sheltered in NH's emergency shelters in FY03, but 13,529 were turned away because there were no available beds. That doesn't count the number of people doubled up with friends or family.Because of HUD cuts in funding, the NH Housing Finance Authority, among others, have closed their waiting lists for Section 8 Housing Vouchers and will not be able to issue any new vouchers for the foreseeable future. This means that low income families do not have access to subsidies for their rent. where do they go now?Because land cost and construction costs are so high in most of the state, new construction of affordable housing can generally only be done using various federally funded housing production programs (Low Income Housing Tax Credits, HOPE VI, Rural Housing, project based Section 8, etc.)

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"For every hour and every moment thousands of men leave life on this earth and their souls appear before God. And how many of them depart in solitude, unknown, sad, dejected that no one mourns for them or even knows that they have lived or not. “ -Fyodor Dostoevsky

National Homeless memorial Day

National Homeless Memorial Day

Dec. 21st

Veteran's Park 6pm

bring a candle or two

The First Day Of Winter

The Longest Night of the Year

Please plan to spend a short part of it with us, in a candlelight vigil for our brothers and sisters who have died this year because of homelessness. Let us gather our hearts in prayerful reflection on the gift of their lives and the tragedy of homelessness in a land of great wealth.

"For every hour and every moment thousands of men leave life on this earth and their souls appear before God. And how many of them depart in solitude, unknown, sad, dejected that no one mourns for them or even knows that they have lived or not. “ -Fyodor Dostoevsky

"UTB" next to a name indicates that person was involved with the under the bridge project

name underlined means that we know He or She was a veteran

This group for names was turned over to me from Jody Wright a dedicated outreach worker from Concord. When she had opportunity to speak to the public about homelessness, she would say, “ the only difference between us and them are these”, as she held up her keys and shook them

Robert Age 36 Died by his own hand A mentally ill man who tried to get help, but couldn’t

Tommy Ferechio

Lee Cherren

Mindy West was 31 years old when she was reported missing on July 30, 1998. Her body was discovered on October 4, 1998 off of Huse Road, a residential neighborhood of Manchester, NH, tied to a tree, with a rope around her neck. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled to death. Mindy was transient at the time of her disappearance but was known to frequent the inner city of Manchester, NH.

After Jody moved away -I began keeping track that following year,

It was 1999, now 10 years later I am still adding names, what’s changed?

Keith Simpson, 42 (UTB) Manchester Found dead in the Merrimack River. He was recycling the copper wiring strung for the girders across the top of the Railroad Bridge and fell.

Anneli Dyer, 49 (UTB) Manchester Found frozen in a snow bank 20 feet from her tent. She was a gentle soul that fought her internal demons daily. She was sober 2 weeks when she died. It was a St. Pats day weekend snowstorm. Union Leader story March Headline "Abandoned in Childhood, homeless in Death" tells about her life as an orphan from Finland. Many miss her dearly, including her daughters

Steve Robert, 43 (UTB) Manchester, poet, artist, friend-Went in a coma 3 days after release from a one day detox he had no medical insurance.

Jefferson Lynde died Nov. 29 from untreated cancer. He’d been homeless, living in a car with friends. They desperately sought medical care and housing for him. At his death he had been housed one month

Howard E. Heselton (Hezzy) born June 20, 1950 and he died Christmas Eve December 24, 2001. Father of two and beloved by his family, worked at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard most of his life

James Carter, 50 " Mayor of Milford" A brain injured man, lifetime resident of Milford Given permission by the town to sleep in the gazebo in the town center Found dead by the Souhegan River

Beverly Phelon 62, slept outside on the ground while being treated for cancer because she couldn't go to the shelter with her service dog. The PD eventually took her dog and took it to a shelter, but left her outside

Scott DeGrenier, Veteran of the Cold War, age 43, found in an Ace Hardware parking lot in Deland Florida August 18. He Left the NH for warmer wintering after many years outside in Manchester, he was quite a character and compassionate to others He Was honored with military funeral in NH Veteran's Cemetery, unlike the respect he had when on the street

William “Billy” Cripps 59, Nov. 6th died 2 weeks after finally getting his disability checks he died in a hotel room from an unknown fever. His biggest fear was to die on the street and for no one to know who he was.

Bill Viens, –Manchester A Vietnam veteran who died on April 16, 2008 at Elliot Hospital He served three tours in Nam, a marine Medic. His wounds remained in his heart. He lived under a bridge; his comrades miss him.

Joseph Carrignan, A diabetic and a Christian man, who lived outside for the past ten years, He was preceded in death by his wife and daughter. He believed his life was the same life of Job and if he remained faithful to God all would be returned to him. He was found dead at his campsite on May 24, 2008

Please plan to spend a short part of it with us, in a candlelight vigil for our brothers and sisters who have died this year because of homelessness. Let us gather our hearts in prayerful reflection on the gift of their lives and the tragedy of homelessness in a land of great wealth.

"For every hour and every moment thousands of men leave life on this earth and their souls appear before God. And how many of them depart in solitude, unknown, sad, dejected that no one mourns for them or even knows that they have lived or not. “ -Fyodor Dostoevsky

NH Memorial Names

-Updated too often

"UTB" next to a name indicates that person was involved with the under the bridge project

This group for names was turned over to me from Jody Wright a dedicated outreach worker from Concord. When she had opportunity to speak to the public about homelessness, she would say, “ the only difference between us and them are these”, as she held up her keys and shook them

John Murdered by another resident while he was sleeping. He was residing in Whitfield House SRO homeless on and off 5 years

Keith Simpson, 42 (UTB) Manchester Found dead in the Merrimack River. He was recycling the copper wiring strung for the girders across the top of the Railroad Bridge and fell.

Anneli Dyer, 49 (UTB) Manchester Found frozen in a snow bank 20 feet from her tent. She was a gentle soul that fought her internal demons daily. She was sober 2 weeks when she died. It was a St. Pats day weekend snowstorm. Union Leader story March Headline "Abandoned in Childhood, homeless in Death" tells about her life as an orphan from Finland. Many miss her dearly, including her daughters

Steve Robert, 43 (UTB) Manchester, poet, artist, friend-Went in a coma 3 days after release from a one day detox he had no medical insurance.

Jefferson Lynde died Nov. 29 from untreated cancer. He’d been homeless, living in a car with friends. They desperately sought medical care and housing for him. At his death he had been housed one month

Howard E. Heselton (Hezzy) born June 20, 1950 and he died Christmas Eve December 24, 2001. Father of two and beloved by his family, worked at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard most of his life

James Carter, 50 " Mayor of Milford" A brain injured man, lifetime resident of Milford Given permission by the town to sleep in the gazebo in the town center Found dead by the Souhegan River

Beverly Phelon 62, slept outside on the ground while being treated for cancer because she couldn't go to the shelter with her service dog. The PD eventually took her dog and took it to a shelter, but left her outside

Scott DeGrenier, Veteran of the Cold War, age 43, found in an Ace Hardware parking lot in Deland Florida August 18. He Left the NH for warmer wintering after many years outside in Manchester, he was quite a character and compassionate to others He Was honored with military funeral in NH Veteran's Cemetery, unlike the respect he had when on the street

William “Billy” Cripps 59, Nov. 6th died 2 weeks after finally getting his disability checks he died in a hotel room from an unknown fever. His biggest fear was to die on the street and for no one to know who he was.

Bill Viens, –Manchester A Vietnam veteran who died on April 16, 2008 at Elliot Hospital He served three tours in Nam, a marine Medic. His wounds remained in his heart. He lived under a bridge; his comrades miss him.

Joseph Carrignan, A diabetic and a Christian man, who lived outside for the past ten years, He was preceded in death by his wife and daughter. He believed his life was the same life of Job and if he remained faithful to God all would be returned to him. He was found dead at his campsite on May 24, 2008

Karen Carter, NH Native American Inter-tribal Counsel, Peer Advocate and good friend, homeless on and off for many years, died of cancer

Also a man that was never brought to our attention before

Howard E. Heselton (Hezzy) born June 20, 1950 and he died Christmas Eve December 24, 2001. Father of two and beloved by his family, worked at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard most of his life

And this year, we also remember Bill Tinker, who died at home on November 16, 2009. Bill devoted his life to defending the rights of people experiencing homelessness. He was the founder of the NH Homeless Alliance.

2010

Keith Cunningham died while his sister was searching for him

its me

still me

The whites, too, shall pass - perhaps sooner than other tribes.

Continue to contaminate your own bed, and you might suffocate in your own waste. Chief Seattle

Hobson's choice from Realchange News

HOBSONS CHOICEThe Game You Just Can't LeaveMany of us have numerous options in our lives. It is hard to imagine becoming homeless, because we know we have many alternatives to being on the street.This is not true for most people who are homeless. They have run out of good options. That's why they are on the street. They constantly have to choose between very limited, mostly unattractive, alternatives that usually don't do much to improve their lives.These limited options are what keep people trapped on the street, frustrated, in crisis, trying to beat the odds. Sometimes, after all options seem exhausted, people stop trying.Hobsons Choice will help give you a sense of what this might be like. A Hobson's choice, as defined by the dictionary, means the choice of taking the thing offered or nothing at all. People are not homeless on their own terms. They work with the options they have.At present, the game offers six possible ways to get off the street. You might luck out and get into a place right away. Or, you might not. It's important to keep trying. Things that don't work the first time you try might on the tenth. Repetition is part of the experience. Good luck.